ITGS Project Resources

Welcome to Construct ICT

You will be working under a IT consultancy called Construct ICT which has many years experience in delivering small scale IT projects within the location of Egham and surrounding areas of SURREY. The consultancy/developer has a wide variety of clients and experience delivering projects using a variety of tools utilising to deliver a number of outcomes including :-

Multimedia - Video, Interactive Presentations

Web Design

Web 2.0 Tools and Services

Desktop Publishing

Spreadsheets

Databases

Programming

App Design and Development

The director of the company is a certain Mr. Alan Perkins - who will manage and oversee the timelines of the project through to final development and will through his experience and know how provide a guide to all students to make sure that the projects are feasible, fulfill the requirements and are always on target. Below you will find instructions and methods for developing your project.

ITGS Project Syllabus and Initial Guide

First thing to do is recheck or download the ITGS Syllabus (note I have placed this in your Dropbox) and read through the guide for the ITGS Major Project. The project is not only a practical element but highlights the area of the course related to Project Management which we will look at in detail as you are taking part in your project.

Remember that you must do the following to make sure you have enough evidence at the end of the project for all criteria :-

You must document all aspects of the project to authenticate it as your work - that means working on the product in class as well as at home. (Note documentation MUST be electronic, as no PAPER is sent off - more about this later)

All communication with the client is to be documented - either via text or multimedia (e.g. video, audio recording or similar)

What you need to do think about right away is:

Find a suitable client - this is probably the most important thing you will choose

Think about your skills and those you would like to develop in IT

Prepare a set of interview questions and conduct the interview - you may need to do this once, then send supplementary questions. Document all responses!

Identify the PROBLEM the client has - note this has to be a realistic problem although the methods of solving it could be very diverse and link to your skill areas and interests

Note Points 1) and 2) can be done in either order - or simultaneously

1) Identifying and Securing a Client

As suggested above the client is going to be incredibly important to your project and needs to be the following :-

easily accessible to you at all times (often a teacher or member of administration is a good idea, but it can be someone outside the school)

have an actual problem so solve

understands and can accept the time needed to give you the information needed

willing to sign the agreement

Once you have decided on who you may like to be your client - noting you may have had informal discussions with this person you will need to formalise this arrangement using the ITGS Client Letter and also getting agreement from the Director of Construct ICT.

2) Going to the Construct ICT Board to Pitch the Main Project Ideas

As suggested you really need to be doing something that you are interested in so whether that is video editing, application development or web design make sure that you think about the problem given to you creatively so that you can follow your interests as well as fulfill the clients needs.

Product Process and Final Hand-in Requirements

The product process is as shown and it is important when deadlines are given to follow these as you will have a great deal of other work for all of your other Diploma subjects.The template for your electronic submission is attached below as a ZIP file and is simply a set of HTML documents. You MUST be able to send off your finished project as a full file able to be looked at and used by the Examiner so this may mean you need to include certain software emulators to make sure that the project is able to be seen.We will go through a basic HTML course so that you are able to edit and alter the ZIP file documents to be able to include all of your documentation - however remember their is a word limit of 2000 so do not go overboard!A ZIP file is available that provides the basic structure of the project for students. This should be downloaded from the OCC and placed in an area of shared access. Students can copy the ZIP file into their workspace and extract the contents. It is most strongly recommended that the contents of this ZIP file are used as the framework for the project.

The initial file format of the documentation files is RTF in order to ensure maximum compatibility with a range of different software types. However, particularly with the insertion of screenshots, the file size may increase to become unmanageable, so it is strongly recommended that the file type is saved as PDF, DOC or HTM/HTML. Guidance in modifying the links in the original cover page form is included later in this section. During the development of the project the student may have converted the RTF files in the forms into other formats such as PDF, DOC or HTM/HTML. This will mean that the original links on the cover page will no longer function as intended. Reasons for the conversion of the file type may include the following.

• The insertion of images into the RTF file has caused the file size to become too large to manage and transfer easily.• The student may wish to link all the documentation files as web pages so as to facilitate easy navigation and viewing.

Where file extensions have changed, the HTML on the cover page must be edited to enable the links to function. For example, if the student has saved the initial investigation as a DOC file, the original link on the cover page does not function.It is strongly recommended that students use a simple text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit to edit the cover page. This will ensure that the links are maintained as relative rather than absolute, which may occur if more complex word processing software is used.

The files that should be contained in the documentation should include :-

Below shows what the ZIP file will contain when initially unzipped :-General Instructions for all projects regarding HAND- IN (Very Important - from Senior Examiners)

The project submission must include the documentation and product on the same CD-ROM/DVD that the teacher marks

Wherever possible the product should be provided in different formats. For example a desktop publishing project may be stored on the CD-ROM/DVD as an Adobe InDesign file and also as a pdf file. Movies can be saved in their original format and also as QuickTime. Students need to examine the export possibilities

Clear directions for accessing the product must be provided

The product should run directly from the CD-ROM/DVD either on a Mac or PC.

Use of screencasts Screencasts are not required in any official documentation, but they will be very useful additional supporting evidence about the functionality of the product when there may be some doubt about whether the moderator will be able to run software such as Access. It is also useful for products that are only web-based such as a MySQL database back-end with a php front end to confirm the structure of the back-end database that is mentioned in Criterion E. A screencast helps the Moderator make judgements about the student's work and hopefully agree with the teacher's mark

Case One - the product needs to be installed on a local machine in order to run . Directions for installation must be provided . The product should run from the product folder when the files are transferred . It is suggested that a screencast is provided as the Moderator may not be able to install software onto a personal computer and there will be no way of moderating the work

Case Two - the product does not run on both Mac and PC platforms and cannot be made available on the Internet . It is suggested that a screencast is provided in order to demonstrate how the product works and the features that are justified in Criterion E Case Three - the product requires Internet access . Relevant files are included on the CD-ROM/DVD as evidence . The URL is provided . The teacher ensures that no further work has been done on the product past the submission date) . A screencast is recommended